Vatican rep on migrants to visit

The Regional Coordinator of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development will be visiting the Archdiocese from Tuesday to Friday this week.

Fr Robert Stark SSS is responsible for North America, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, according to the Migrants and Refugees Section website. He joined the Section in 2017 and speaks English and Spanish.

Ordained a priest of the Blessed Sacrament order in 1977, he has a PhD in Social Ethics from the University of Chicago and has worked extensively for social justice with migrant communities in the United States and Central America. He is also currently the Director of the Office for Social Ministry in the Diocese of Honolulu.

Fr Stark will visit parishes in the Northern, Southern and Eastern Vicariates with migrant ministries, meet with the Archdiocesan Ministry for Migrants and Refugees (AMMR) and the Living Water Community, and hold discussions on Friday with government, non-government and international stakeholders like the National Security Ministry’s Counter Trafficking Unit and the UNHCR.

He will meet with local clergy on Thursday and celebrate a farewell Mass on Friday at Archbishop’s House chapel for the AMMR and other invitees.